"What is truly revealing is [Antonio Sabato Jr.'s] implication that believing something to be true is the same as its being true. Because if anything, that was the theme of the Republican Convention this week. It was a four-day exercise in emphasizing feelings over facts."

-- John Oliver, on that Sunday's Last Week Tonight

by Ken

Leastwise that's my opinion, Antonio, up there atop this post -- you know, about God thinking you're an asshole and Jesus saying you suck. And you know what? As you explained so eloquently on national TV, I'm entitled to my opinion, and you can go against it, but I believe it. Why . . . why . . . denying me my right to have and express my opinion is just like Communism, as you have further explained.

And it seems only fair to allow you to make your case, seeing as how I so enthusiastically endorsed John Oliver's making a federal case of your nationally televised assault on sense, sanity, truth, and decency, your coast-to-coast declaration of war on, well, reality. I'm sure you remember what you blithered, but perhaps some readers could use a refresher. As John put it, you, an "IMDB-page-awarded actor," after "deliver[ing] a relatively restrained speech" at the convention, "open[ed] [your] heart regarding President Obama to ABC News":

Since you still don't get it, Antonio, not any of it, it's hard to know where to begin. And not, I think, with the most obvious point: that what you believe is demonstrable and well-demonstrated bullshit, delivered with the intent, or at least the result, of destroying civility and decency, and that it can only be the product of some combination of imbecility and insanity. No, I think we have to back up to the underlying belief: that being a Muslim is inherently evil, or for that matter in any way subject to reproach, especially from a demonstrated lunatic-cretin. Because with this stated belief, you declared yourself, again to a national TV audience, as a snarling, savage bigot and hate-monger, again with no imaginable goal except the destruction of sense, civility, and decency.

So while yes, you have a right to your beliefs and of course the right of free speech to express them. But included with those rights are the rights of others to respond to their ignorance, delusionality, and dangerous hatefulness. This is, after all, the way free speech is supposed to work. And yet . . . and yet . . .

Well, two weeks later, the former Dance Night Obsession star is saying that his support of Donald Trump has led to a Joseph McCarthy-like blacklist of Sabáto Jr! As an aside, here’s a tweet from Sabáto Jr. from a little over a month ago.

Sadly for Antonio Sabáto Jr, not unlike people’s reaction to 2003’s Wasabi Tuna, the backlash against him is making him frowny-face-unicorn-poo-brokenheart emoticony. He tells Variety:

I think this country allows you freedom of speech. Anybody should be allowed to say whatever they want. When you’re in my business, you can’t talk about [conservative] politics. You just can’t. You’re attacked viciously in a way that I’ve never been attacked before.

On Twitter, there’s been name calling, and celebrities attacking me. That’s fine. I see it, but I don’t read it. I block them and delete them and move on. There’s so much negativity you can be taken into that. But I’ve also heard from celebrities: “If he can do it, I want to speak my mind too.” They are fed up with the way this country has been running and by all these lies.

As our Antonio prattles on, he seems to lose some of his optimism.

I was never a politician. I care about my country. I put God first. For the last seven-and-a-half years, I’ve seen this country led by a leader that’s made mistakes. I spoke my mind about it. But because I’m in the industry, you can’t talk about that. The media and the liberals act the way they act: The will back up the president until the end. It’s been interesting. I’ve had fantastic directors who have said officially to my agents and managers they will never hire me again. They will never even see me for projects. That’s unfair. It’s just like Communism.

Um, yikes! "Just like Communism"? Do you actually known anything about Communism, Antonio? Or, more to the point, about blacklisting? This is actually the sort of thing beloved by power-mongering right-wing hatebags.

But to return to the, er, substance, of your complaint -- so much crackpot bullshit, so little attachment to reality. Well, sorry, Antonio, none of this washes, for the reasons I sketched earlier on, but also, as Walter points out with regard to your newfound diminished employability:

This would be true, if it was true. Here’s a quick list of the liberal power brokers of Hollywood:

• Robert Downey Jr. -- Conservative and top grossing actor in Hollywood
• Clint Eastwood -- seriously
• ylvester Stallone -- the guy that has three top grossing films over the last five years
• Jerry Brickheimer -- If you’ve watched a movie that goes “boom” in the last 40 years, he probably produced it.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger -- Was a governor once, I think
• James Woods, Jon Voigt, Gary Senise, John Malkovich, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Adam Sandler, Robert Duvall, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson ... and the list goes on.

Hollywood’s about narcissism and money -- yes, there are “liberals” in Hollywood, but mostly “social liberals,” which means virtually nothing except that you are aware that gay people aren’t going to some fictitious hell. However, the Shark Hunter actor, who will be coming out with a mini-series next year titled Antonio Sabato Jr Down Under, feels like he’s being punished for being as dumb as a brick.

Ah, if only our IMDB-page-awarded boy was aware that "he's being punished for being as dumb as a brick." Now I don't want to let this go without restressing John Oliver's original point, which emphatically wasn't about our Antonio being an idiot. As he made abundantly clear, it was about the belief that "believing something to be true is the same as its being true."

HOWEVER, ANTONIO, AS REGARDS YOUR CAREER . . .

. . . being dumb as a brick may well be a problem. Even more of a problem is your demonstrated willingness, even eagerness, to make headlines by spewing imbecilic, hate-infested lies and delusions. You've turned yourself into what's often known as a "loose cannon," and this often doesn't sit well with people one would like to do business with. Just consider, if you were the producer of such hot-ticket spectacles as Shark Hunter and Antonio Sabato Jr Down Under, how eager would you be to sign up a potential cancer for your extravaganza?

Now one doesn't want to get so personal as to cast aspersion on your talents, Antonio. Just because those talents don't happen to include much in the way of acting doesn't mean you shouldn't be employable as an actor. If Hollywood were to outlaw the hiring of low-talent actors, well, it would be a very different place, wouldn't it? But did you really expect Antonio, that your talents -- being pretty and having a killer body -- would be a lifetime meal ticket? Does that sound like Hollywood?

Did readers notice, by the way, buried in Antonio's blithering, the apparent source of his seemingly implacable Obama hatred? "For the last seven-and-a-half years, I’ve seen this country led by a leader that’s made mistakes." Well, DWT has had a fair amount to say about mistakes made by President Obama, but the list doesn't include being a Muslim, and wouldn't even if it were true.